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Whitewashing Leftist Anti-Semitism

The Washington Post's peculiar "exposé" on campus Jew-hatred.

Since his inauguration, elements within the leftist mainstream media have tried to advance the mendacious and pernicious narrative that Trump and his so-called populist policies are the driving force behind xenophobic hate crimes. Despite their best efforts to derail, defame and tarnish the administration, the scheme nosedived badly.

First, they focused their attention on the “surge” of “Islamophobic hate crimes.” But many of these so-called hate crimes, which involved young, hijab-wearing “victims,” turned out to be nothing more than victim-orchestrated hoaxes that expended valuable police time. Retractions and corrections, to the extent that they were actually issued, were generally buried in little blurbs on page six. The MSM had no use for such stories which ran counter to the Trump-hating, group-think narrative.

The MSM then shifted gears and suddenly took a keen interest in a subject they had largely ignored during the preceding eight years – anti-Semitism. During Obama’s tenure, there were over 7,000 recorded acts of Jew-hatred in the United States and many of these anti-Semitic incidents occurred at institutions of higher learning.

The MSM which, with few exceptions, had remained silent and indifferent for eight long years suddenly orchestrated the great anti-Semitism panic of 2017. Not a day went by without the MSM focusing on prank bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers. Incidents of this nature should of course be reported and highlighted but they had been occurring with banal regularity for eight years with scant coverage. Suddenly, fringe and obscure radical leftist groups like Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, whom no one ever heard of, gained national prominence and were regularly being cited by the MSM.

When Trump fumbled during a press conference in response to a somewhat incoherent and rambling question addressing the issue of anti-Semitism, the New York Times capitalized on the moment to issue a scathing attack on Trump essentially blaming him for the alleged uptick in anti-Semitism. To place things in proper context, this is the same paper that provided the notorious anti-Semite Max Blumenthal a platform on its Op-Ed page to spew his rancid drivel and described convicted murderer and terrorist Marwan Barghouti as, “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian,” without noting his murderous past.

But the skewed narrative pushed by the New York Times and others in the MSM unraveled in short order when it was discovered that most of the JCC bomb threats were delivered by a deranged Israeli teen who had been rejected for service by the Israeli Army. Another prankster arrested earlier turned out to be an African American Bernie Sanders supporter who made the threats in a bizarre scheme to implicate his girlfriend for breaking up with him.

The MSM had egg on its face and since Trump could no longer be blamed, its reporting of the scourge of anti-Semitism in the U.S. largely petered out. But anti-Semitism still remains a serious problem particularly on college campuses across the U.S. Much of the Jew-hatred that occurs is driven and spear-headed by rabidly anti-Israel, Muslim Brotherhood offshoot groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association.

In fact, according to the campus watchdog group AMCHA Initiative, anti-Semitic incidents are eight times more likely to occur at universities where the SJP and MSA have an active presence. Jewish students and supporters of Israel are routinely forced to endure harassment and indignities by these groups. Sadly, this is a fact that the MSM deliberately chooses to ignore.

But on April 24th the Washington Post featured an article authored by Kristine Phillips with the following headline; “The ‘hotbed of anti-Semitism’ isn’t a foreign country. It’s U.S. college campuses, a new report says.” I was heartened by the headline. Alas, a major media outlet was finally drawing attention to the scourge of Muslim inspired anti-Semitism. Someone was actually paying attention. There was hope.

My enthusiasm was unfortunately short-lived. The 961 word article was devoid of any reference to the SJP, MSA or similar Muslim hate groups. No mention was given to the countless acts of anti-Semitism committed directly or indirectly by these groups. A discussion relating to anti-Semitism on college campuses without noting the SJP’s contribution to Jew hate is akin to a discussion on the Nazi concentration camps without noting that it was the Nazis who actually ran the camps.

As amply noted by the watchdog group Canary Mission, the social media accounts of members of these groups are liberally laced with vile anti-Semitic invective and conspiracy. SJP and MSA members routinely attempt to disrupt pro-Israel events. In some instances, Jewish themed events with no nexus to Israel are also subjected to disruption, such as when Hillel sponsored a Hanukkah party that was disrupted by barging SJP hooligans. Votes pertaining to matters of concern to Jewish students are often deliberately scheduled by the SJP and MSA on Jewish holidays to minimize Jewish student influence over the outcome. In at least one recorded incident, Muslim students cheered the intimidating Muslim battle cry of Allahuakbar after pushing through the passage of an anti-Israel student council resolution. Moreover, the SJP and MSA routinely espouse views that are consistent with the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism.

Yet the Washington Post piece makes no mention of these and other unconscionable behaviors initiated by these hate-filled supremacists. Instead, the article reverts to the blame Trump game, placing indirect responsibility on his campaign for the surge of anti-Semitic incidents. While right-wing anti-Semitism is prominently featured, alt-left anti-Semitism largely perpetrated by the SJP and MSA is entirely omitted.

The Washington Post piece paradoxically cites AMCHA’s statistics on anti-Semitism but absurdly and obscenely sanitized them to exclude any mention of the SJP or MSA, an outrageous omission. According to AMCHA, which meticulously tracks and records anti-Semitic outrages, the “SJP and other anti-Zionist student groups are a major source of anti-Semitic rhetoric and behavior at many schools.”

The Washington Post’s glaring omissions, likely intentional, represent classic yellow journalism and fake news and its worst. They should be ashamed.

Ari Lieberman is an attorney and former prosecutor who has authored numerous articles and publications on matters concerning the Middle East and is considered an authority on geo-political and military developments affecting the region.